Around the web there has been a lot of talk about how the UF football program is a money source, not a sink and this and that and trying to link the two together.

But I think it's better to just look at this in isolation: it's plain stupid to cut your CS funding given where the future of industry and commerce is heading. We'll have more software, more automation, more computers in the future, not less. And they will increasingly be more complex and require brighter, better prepared people.

Forget about the whole debate around the merits or demerits of the football program. The cut to the CS funding is plain dumb. It's a hit to the entire university and a hit to other universities who would want to attract top CS talent (staff and students) to Florida as well.

A man visited the University of Nebraska and took a tour of the football stadium. He saw a player wearing a hat with a big N on the front. He asked the young athlete what the N stood for. Without a moment's hesitation, he said, "Nowledge."

Why shoudl I feel sorry for the CS department. How many arts and music programs have been cut around the country to save costs. At the end the day education in the US is resolving to make us stupider and less cultured.

To the writer: I think the article is confusing Computer Science ( in the college of Liberal Arts) with Computer Engineering (in the college of Engineering). They are distinct entities and only the Computer Engineering program seems to be affected by this plan.

>>Realistically, most faculty who are actively engaged in a research program are unlikely to accept that sort of change

What's the support for this claim? I imagine that "most faculty who are actively engaged in a research program" are the ones being moved to the other department (to continue their research there).

No matter how you look at it, it's a slap in the face and speaks volumes about the priorities of the academic institution that you are employed by.

If your company decided to get rid of your department and move its functions into other departments, would you feel secure in your job? Would you feel that it is an organization that you would want to be a part of and better? Would you want to invest your knowledge and abilities into such an organization? Or would you feel vulnerable and unvalued? Would you feel insecure and unappreciated?

Yep, the CS department was cut but the athletic department's budget increased $2 million over last year. Way to prioritize Florida.

I don't know how it is done in Florida, but usually the Athletic Department is its own entity and typically funnels funds into the University. So changes in the Football Department shouldn't have any impact on academics.

At least that is the way it is in my home town. Because every year people start bitching that Football program isn't competitive because they have to give so much of its money back to the University.

I know one thing that has been affecting us is that the Lottery and State scholarship programs have replaced not supplemented state funding. Thus the Academic quality has reduced, because students have to keep there scholarships to return next semester. Additionally, The cost of tution has dramatically increased.

All while, University spending has gone unchecked and we build buildings and redo the landscaping everywhere. Additionally the amount of out of state and international students have increased because they pay more.

Unfortunately for the students at UF, this action will have the effect of devaluing any educational credential received from the institution. This seems to be the harbinger of the school devolving from a university to simply a limited, vocational school.

I know faculty in this department. If this goes through, all of the good people will be poached (CS enrollments are exploding once again to what we saw in the 90s) and they will be left with the people who were not good enough to move.

It's about surpluses (profits). When I was in UT there was a big to-do about how they were going to run it more and more like a private sector enterprise... and bringing in private sector managers and what not, raising tuition-fees on US and Texas students to un-subsidized private sector levels. They talked about it like it was a good thing.

Basically it's capitalism in the public sector. No longer is the public sector primarily mission oriented, it is also primarily profit (surplus) oriented now. Hope they admit (hire) some more cheerleaders (Uni Promotion Models) while they are at it. Isn't it awesome when your show-room models have to PAY you??

As someone else mentioned and should be clarified by this article, this is the computer engineering department NOT the CS department. Computer Engineering degrees ... honestly most people with them either seem to go into CS or just become EEs. I think the separation between what most EEs do and what most CEs do has blurred a lot. I am betting the actual CS and EE departments are somewhat self-funded or cost the university very little. Certain departments are most universities are responsible for a LOT of the research dollars funneled into the university: CS and EE are often some of those departments even though CS enrollment may have been down at one point (though not today.)

Not sure if this is really a good or a bad thing. On the one hand, it's eliminating the research drive which may fuel new advances in the field. On the other, it's shifting their focus and resources from research to teaching, which should be the main focus of a teaching institution, to begin with.

I went to a teaching-focused school for Computer Science. They didn't have a strong presence when it came to research. But in quality of instruction and training in my field, they were top tier. Many large companies in the industry actively recruited from my school for that reason. I got my foot in the door at AMD because my mom was having a casual conversation with my little brother's soccer coach, who ended up being a manager at AMD, and mentioned the name of my school. His response was "send me his résumé." So having a renewed teaching focus may be a good thing in the end for the students and quality of education.

Maybe all of the terminated and fleeing faculty will find a home at the new Florida Polytechnic that was just created.

Formally USF Polytechnic, where I am/was currently a student, USFP separated to become the first polytechnic in Florida. The statute created a teach-out program to keep faculty and allow students to finish out their degrees in Lakeland.

I feel for the UF students, UCF did the same thing to me 3 years ago. It cost me a year in classes I had to take to get a similar degree at USFP. It should be illegal.

To the writer: I think the article is confusing Computer Science ( in the college of Liberal Arts) with Computer Engineering (in the college of Engineering). They are distinct entities and only the Computer Engineering program seems to be affected by this plan.

To the writer: I think the article is confusing Computer Science ( in the college of Liberal Arts) with Computer Engineering (in the college of Engineering). They are distinct entities and only the Computer Engineering program seems to be affected by this plan.

It's the same department. They have two different plans to get a CS degree (corresponding to the two different colleges) and they also have a CE degree shared with the EE dept.

Regardless of whether it's science or engineering that's being shafted, saying that slashing the budget and cutting staff will help the "size and excellence" of the program is some pretty Orwellian wording.

To the writer: I think the article is confusing Computer Science ( in the college of Liberal Arts) with Computer Engineering (in the college of Engineering). They are distinct entities and only the Computer Engineering program seems to be affected by this plan.

Not at UF. I have a Computer Science degree from UF, through the Liberal Arts and Sciences college, which UF calls "CSC". They also offer computer engineering degrees through the College of Engineering, CSE and CEN.

CSC and CSE are identical degree requirements except for the Gen. Ed requirements, which for CSC are CLAS and for CSE are Eng. The computer science courses taken for the CSC degree are the exact same classes taken for CSE, and are administered/taught by the Computer Engineering department.

There is no "computer science" department inside of CLAS at UF, merely a degree program where you take classes from the College of Engineering.

Seems like a good move to me. Professors should be teaching at least 3 classes per semester. This will result in a smaller department and justified cost savings. Other public schools are following suit.

It seems like going forward, any kid in Florida wishing to get a decent scientific degree at a state school will only be able to go to Florida A&M. What a bunch of morons to gut the programs that train the people who actually create value in society, while expanding degrees that are little more than cost centers. Way to go Florida - china and india thank you! No wonder florida schools regularly rank near the bottom of US surveys. what a joke. And this is the "higher level education" that florida's crappy highschools are releasing their students into. Where is a facepalm when you need one.

To the writer: I think the article is confusing Computer Science ( in the college of Liberal Arts) with Computer Engineering (in the college of Engineering). They are distinct entities and only the Computer Engineering program seems to be affected by this plan.

Not at UF. I have a Computer Science degree from UF, through the Liberal Arts and Sciences college, which UF calls "CSC". They also offer computer engineering degrees through the College of Engineering, CSE and CEN.

CSC and CSE are identical degree requirements except for the Gen. Ed requirements, which for CSC are CLAS and for CSE are Eng. The computer science courses taken for the CSC degree are the exact same classes taken for CSE, and are administered/taught by the Computer Engineering department.

There is no "computer science" department inside of CLAS at UF, merely a degree program where you take classes from the College of Engineering.

For my own clarification, how is that different from what I said (especially the last sentence)?

ETA: quoting from the linked PDF

Quote:

Under this proposed plan, all of the Computer Engineering Degree programs, BS, MS and PhD, would be moved from the Computer & Information Science and Engineering Dept. to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. along with most of the advising staff.

and

Quote:

The faculty remaining in CISE would then focus their efforts on teaching and advising students in the existing Computer Science BS and MS degree programs, offered through both COE and CLAS.

There is something to be said for schools focussing on either teaching or research.

I did my Batchelors at a teaching focussed school, and my masters at a research foccused one and the difference was telling. At both, most of the staff enjoyed teaching, and were really enthusiastic about teaching us. But at the research focussed school, they lacked the social and presentation skills to pull it off in the same way. I'm not saying that being a good researcher means being a bad teacher. I'm saying that the research school fired bad researchers, and the teaching school fired bad teachers, so you ended up with specialists. And when you want to learn a taught class, you want a teaching specialist.

I think teaching was bad for the research foccused teachers as well, at both schools. It takes a long time to put together slides for a class and keep them up to date. Add in office hours, marking, and making sure the TAs were up to teaching the seminars and you could see it was taking time that they would rather have been spending elsewhere.

Here in the UK, funding is awarded for research excellence, and also depends on attracting students willing to pay high fees. Prospective students choose schools using league tables that heavily wieght the research quality scores. The result is that teaching focussed schools shrivel and die. I dated a girl who went to a london teaching foccused university that did very badly in the league tables. It seemed more like a US community college in that there wasn't a lot of research going on. I was pretty jelous of the quality of teaching she was getting - the notes were excelent, and the courses were really well structured. That school is likely to close soon.

>>Realistically, most faculty who are actively engaged in a research program are unlikely to accept that sort of change

What's the support for this claim? I imagine that "most faculty who are actively engaged in a research program" are the ones being moved to the other department (to continue their research there).

Because these are the same types of professors who were probably hired to teach but worked their way into research grant(s). It's a double edged sword. We need the research yet they need them to actually teach as well, but that might not go over so good with a few of the privileged ones...